STUDENT GROUP 17 (1962/1963)
Alumni from this group include Michael Davis, Estelle Hampton, Gillian Kerswell and David Pearson and Sonia Dowden (Pearson).
A highlight of their first year was a photo call for the local press featuring a group session with Alfred Emmet. As of yet we have been unable to track down where or when these photos were published - if at all!
February 1964
THREE ONE ACT PLAYS
THE BALD PRIMA DONNA
by Eugene Ionesco
LITHUANIA
by Rupert Brooke
THE WEDDING
by Anon Chekhov
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Julia Atkinson, Donald Clarke, Michael Davis, Virginia Fell, Stanley Goodchild, Audrey Hewlett, Mary Holland, Reta Saxton-Howes, Gillian Kerswell, Roger Kidd, Michael Langridge, Earle Lewis, David Evershed-Martin, Earl Norder, David Pearson, Wendy Stone, Cleo Wrighton
This was the second of four Student Group revivals of Chekhov's THE WEDDING, and David Pearson's Questors debut.
Michael Langridge (who had graduated from Group 16) and Reta Saxton-Howes made quite a hit as a double act in THE WEDDING playing an aged waiter and waitress. Reta Saxton-Howes also drew praise for her performance in the THE BALD PRIMA DONNA. The pair were to repeat their partnership the following year in a director's showcase production of Ionesco's play THE CHAIRS.
July 1964
THE DARK OF THE MOON by Howard Richardson, William Berney
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Carol Allen, Jill Champion, Donald Clark, Michael Davis, Winifred Fraser, Keith Godman, Stanley Goodchild, Estelle Hampton, Jacqueline Hasland, Audrey Hewlett, Wendy Jolly, Monyene Kane, Gillian Kerswell, Roger Kidd, Michael Langridge, Earle Lewis, Wylie Longmore, James Neil, Earl Norder, David Pearson, Reta Saxton-howes, Wendy Stone, John Turner, Cleopatra Wrighton
This was the first Student Production to take place in the new Playhouse.
The production made a big impression on Douglas McVay in the County Times:
"... some nice playing, and some good moments. Wylie Longmore, arms and fingers bent and outspread, a bounding black eagle, as the witch-boy. Sorceress Estelle Hampton and Cleopatra Wrighton tormenting and enslaving him with a perilously whirling axe, their long hair like golden and ebony seaweed.
"Two things, though, were the real magic: Gillian Kerswell singing BARBARA ALLEN, only comparable in yearning beauty amongst American folk-songs with BLACK IS THE COLOUR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HAIR; and the curtain... the witch-boy, his brief humanity lost, callously pushing Barbara's dead body with his foot, sending it toppling down a slope, casting his scarlet neckerchief after her — and vanishing as the lights blacked out..."
STUDENT GROUP 18 (1963/1964)
Margaret McDonald may possibly hold the record, if not for having been in more student groups than anyone else, then at least for taking the longest to graduate. Besides year one of Group 18, she is recorded as having been in year one of Groups 19 and 20 and apparently not achieving the second year until Groups 29 (1974-1976) and 30 (1975-1977). She appeared in several productions in 1978 as an acting member.
Group 18 also included Wendy Stone who later returned to direct Student Groups 35 (1982), 36 (1983) and 41 (1988).
February 1965
STUDENT ONE-ACT PLAYS
GREAT CATHERINE by Bernard Shaw
SGANARELLE
by Moliere
THOR, WITH ANGELS
by Christopher Fry
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
John Alioglu, Julia Atkinson, Jill Champion, Michael Davis, Jill Ghampion, Keith Godman, Stanley Goodchild, Jacqueline Hasland, Audrey Hewlett, Trevor Hopkins, Wendy Jolly, James Neil, Rosalinde Nissel, Peter Sharp, Wendy Stone, Julian Tayler, Christopher Taylor
July 1965
MAJOR BARBARA
By Bernard Shaw
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Jill Champion
Cast:
Jill Champion, Keith Godman, Stanley Goodchild, Jacqueline Hasland, Audrey Hewlett, Phillip Irving, Wendy Jolly, Roger Kidd, Michael Langridge, David Pearson, Peter Sharp, Wendy Stone, Christopher Taylor, John Turner
The play was chosen to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Salvation Army.
Surprisingly, out of the 40 Bernard Shaw productions so far put on by The Questors this was only the second of two productions of MAJOR BARBARA, the first having been directed by Eric Voce in 1953.
Writing in the Middlesex County Times, 'THT' was enthusiastic about the performances (including that of the makeup artist!) but unfortunately credited Tony Shipley as the director of the piece, instead of Michael Hoddell. Tony was in fact the 'Stage" director.
STUDENT GROUP 19 (1964/1965)
Amongst this Group's first year students was Roger de Toney. He had made previous brief appearances in the 1965 New Plays Festival and had doubled as a "lord" and a "shepherd" in the 1965 production of HENRY V. He didn't make it into this Group's second year but went on to Group 20 where he graduated in the part of Rev Parris in THE CRUCIBLE (see below).
It was his Uncle, Michael McOwan, who suggested that Roger should join The Questors. Previously he had been working as a scene shifter in a Guernsey Repertory Theatre. In addition to being a pillar of strength in the Student Group he was a familiar figure in the Grapevine (on both sides of the bar) and became a regular actor through to the late 1980s. He joined the Committee of Management in 1972 and became Chairman in 1984.
Student Group 19 at work...
February 1966
STUDENT ONE ACT PLAYS
A NIGHT OUT
by Harold Pinter
THE OTHER SON
by Luigi Pirandello
THE RED VELVET GOAT
by Josephine Niggle
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Sheila Sorley
Cast:
Charleen Agostini, Veronica Brend, Diana Devlin, Sonia Dowden, Patsy Feathers, Tony Garner, Richard Gaunt, James Harrop, Jillyann Healy, Trevor Hopkins, Michael Langridge, Rosalinde Nissel, David Pearson, Laurence Phillips, Morris Rosen, Helen Sorokou, Julian Tayler, Christopher Taylor, Christine Taylor, John Turner
[Photo: A Night Out]
The cast of this triple bill included Jillyann Healy, Sonia and David Pearson, John Turner and Michael Langridge.
Also appearing for only the second time on the Questors stage (the first being as a “walk on” in THE SILVER KING (1965) where he nearly brought the show to a stop by missing an entrance - "I was putting my makeup on, actually") was Richard Gaunt (left), who was a first year student in Group 20 at the time, a future leading actor and editor of Questopics as well as a core member of the Coarse Acting team.
Here is an extract from QUESTOPICS introducing the triple bill to Questors members:
STUDENTS' ONE-ACT PLAYS
The growth and success of the Questors Theatre, like any other society, depends upon the constant influx of new faces and new personalities. Each year at this time Questors members have the opportunity of seeing the production of three one-act plays by those students who are in their final year of training. In a few months' time many of them will be joining the main acting group, and, if past history is anything to go by, will soon be displaying their talents both regularly and creditably on the Questors stage.
Here, then, is the chance to have a preview of what is to come; a chance to see these young people in their first production and to pick from them a face or personality which in the future may very well become one of Questors leading performers.
The three plays to be performed are chosen, wherever possible, for their variety of style and content; but the most important consideration is, as always, to provide an evening's entertainment for the audience who are, after all, the most important part of any theatre.
Sadly, Douglas McVay, writing in the Middlesex County Times, did not echo this positive tone:
"With the best will in the world, I have to report that, in the Questors’ students’ triple-bill, directed by Michael Hoddell last week, I found the first segment wrongheaded and inadequate; the second ineffably dull; and the third, unentertainingly trivial."
Well you can't win 'em all!
July 1966
RING ROUND THE MOON
by Jean Anouilh
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Sheila Sorley
Cast:
Charleen Agostini, Hubert Blackmore, Veronica Brend, Diana Devlin, Sonia Dowden, Tony Garner, Keith Godman, James Harrop, Jillyann Healey, Trevor Hopkins, Laurence Phillips, Helen Sorokou, Julian Tayler, Peter Wall
The July 1966 edition of QUESTOPICS was the first regular special "Students" issue profiling the students, Michael Hoddell and their July production.
QUESTOPICS, July 1966
STUDENT GROUP 20 (1965/1966)
24 students were selected (10 men and 14 women) out of the 43 who auditioned, and of the 19 rejected, 6 were recommended to enter the Young Questors. 11 were accepted into the second year together with Roger de Toney and Jacquelin Pinchin from the Group 19 first year.
Among the first year students were Richard Gaunt (see Group 19 above), Ann Bevan (left), and Lyn Jones (right) - all long standing Questors actors - and Michael Healy who didn’t progress to the second year but returned as an acting member in 1980.Heading 5
There was also a young woman in the first year who didn’t remain with The Questors very long but made a name for herself in a completely different field - Vivienne Westwood.February 1967
STUDENT TRIPLE BILL
THE DAMASK DRUM
by Yukio Mishima
POISON, PASSION AND PETRIFACTION
by Bernard Shaw
A PHOENIX TOO FREQUENT
by Christopher Fry
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Sheila Sorley
Cast:
Ann Bevan, Hubert Blackmore, Virginia Brown, Tony Garner, Philip Irving, Lyn Jones, Jackie Pinchin, Cynthia Ridout, Georgina Skilton, Roger De Tony
[Photo: Roger de Tony in THE DAMASK DRUM]
In his effusive review of this production, the reviewer in the County Times typified the Questors student as "animated, highly eloquent and knowledgeable" as epitomized by Lyn Jones in her performance as Doto in A PHOENIX TOO FREQUENT.
July 1967
THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Ann Bevan, Hubert Blackmore, Pauline Brady, Roger de Tony, Winifred Fraser, Anthony Garner, Richard Gaunt, Stanley Goodchild, Philip Irving, Lyn Jones, Michael Langridge, David Pearson, Jacqueline Pinchin, Jane Rhydout, Cynthia Ridout, Martin Rutherford, Reta Saxton-Howes, Georgina Skilton, John Turner
Photos of THE CRUCIBLE
Programme
Press Review
[NB: The review by “C.C.” in the County Times is a bit confused. Either a portion of his review was edited out or he simply wasn’t paying attention! It was, of course, not Rev Parris but John Proctor (played by Richard Gaunt) who ends up in jail and “chooses death and honour.”]
This was the second of three student productions of THE CRUCIBLE, although the first, by Group 13 in 1960 , was only an extract. The third was by Group 35 in 1982 and was followed by two further productions by the main acting company in 1999 and 2015.
David Pearson (who played Giles Corey in this production) introduced members of the cast in the July 1967 issue of QUESTOPICS:
The sweet, deadly ringleader of the possessed girls, Abigail Williams is played by Marilyn Jones. Lyn will be remembered for her delightful Doto in the February student production of A PHOENIX TOO FREQUENT! Two of her companions in homicide are Cynthia Ridout, a LAMDA gold medallist, and Ann Bevan, film extra, who hopes to join a repertory theatre. Richard Gaunt, a solicitor in the making, faces the wrong end of a justice gone mad as John Proctor, the defiant hero of THE CRUCIBLE. His wife, Elizabeth, is played by another LAMDA gold medallist, Georgina Skilton, who leaves for Philadelphia in the autumn for two years of medical social work. Attractive Jacqueline Pinchin (the revolting Mrs Ann Putman) is off in the other direction, to Hong Kong. The husband she leaves in Salem is Philip Irving. The two Reverend gentlemen, Parris and Hale, are portrayed by Roger de Toney and Tony Garner, who is subsequently seeking sanctuary in the Rose Bruford Drama School. Hubert Blackmore, as Ezekiel Cheever, rounds off the Second Year Student Group.
The cast is completed by 3 first year students and 6 ex-students – all refugees from DARK OF THE MOON. The latter have all had some experience in the main acting group, but this does not mean that THE CRUCIBLE is in any sense less of a student production. We 'old boys' are just as much a product of student group tuition as the present bunch. True we had fallen into the slack ways of the outside world, but here we are – caught up in a fine play – surrounded by an enthusiastic cast simply dripping 'units and objectives' – bullied and coaxed by our bearded mentor of yore, Michael Hoddell, assisted by not-so-bearded Diana Devlin – placed on a scaffold, the stark, simple (and so right) setting by John Rolfe – and terrorised by the wildest girls in swinging London. Rehearsals have never frightened me so much. It tones up the muscles no end.
STUDENT GROUP 21 (1966-1968)
Described in QUESTOPICS as “a particularly promising and attractive group,” Group 21 included Barbara Butters (destined to be the mother of our current Artistic Director); Cherry Kane, Monyene's younger sister; Kevin Fells, a regular on our stage until the late 1970's; and Richard Halberstadt (left), fresh from the Young Questors group and a continuing presence on our stage, in the director's chair and generally behind-the-scenes right up until his untimely death in 2018.
Robin Ingram (right) also appeared on the roll call for this and Group 22’s first-year, although he didn't make it into a second year. But that didn't matter because he had already established himself as an indispensable young Questors actor in half a dozen productions prior to this and went on to chalk up over a hundred appearances on our stage - and is still going strong!
The soon to be award-winning film director Alan Clarke, who was causing ripples (if not waves) at The Questors, stood in for Alfred Emmet while he was away and took the first year acting classes - how exciting that must have been.
February 1968
THREE ONE ACT PLAYS
CALL ME A LIAR
by John Mortimer
THE GIRL
by Norman Trevor
THE MAYOR OF TORONTAL
by Gwynneth Jones
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Sheila Sorley
Cast:
Rosalie Beck , Pauline Brady, Barbara Butters, Jarlath Conroy, Hilary Ellwood, Kevin Fells, Richard Halberstadt, Nicholas Hunt, Cherry Kane, Christopher Ley, Avril Lotinga, Paul O'Connor, David Pearson, Jane Rhydout, Martin Rutherford, Elizabeth Symon, Diana Watkins
[Photo: THE MAYOR OF TORONTAL]
The QUESTOPICS article previewing this production (see link above) mentions that THE GIRL was the stage premier of a play that had originally been broadcast on ITV. Michael Hoddell had been so impressed with it as an ideal play for the students that he contacted the author and persuaded him to write a stage version specially for the Questors.
July 1968
THE MAD WOMAN OF CHAILLOT
by Jean Giradoux
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Sheila Sorley and Nigel Cowell
Cast:
Rosalie Beck, Barbara Butters, Michael Cartwright, Jane Collins, Jarleth Conroy, Hilary Ellwood, Kevin Fells, Richard Gaunt, Richard Halberstadt, Nick Hunt, Philip Irving, Philip Irving, Cherry Kane, Christopher Ley, Avril Lotinga, Paul O'connor, Linda Porter, Jane Rhydout, Tony Richards, Christine Richardson, Martin Rutherford, Eric Smith, Diane Watkins, Geoffrey Webb
STUDENT GROUP 22 (1967-1969)
21 of 32 applicants who auditioned for this Group were accepted into the First Year (8 male, 13 female) of which 13 made it into the Second Year. Among these were Judy Lane (left), newly-wed Maggie Turner (right) and Geoff Webb (see below) - all of whom are so thoroughly a part of our history that there would not be enough room here to give anything like an adequate account of them.
A dramatic photo of Geoff Webb, who had already graced the Questors stage as a sailor in THE FLYING DUTCHMAN before joining the First Year Group, featured in the Hounslow Post's review of the “exciting, stimulating and very entertaining” Students at Work in July 1968 (below).
The Hounslow Post
19 July 1968
AN EXCITING, stimulating, and very entertaining evening—'that's the 'POST's" verdict on the annual presentation by first-year students at the Questors Theatre, Mattock Lane, Ealing, called "Students at Work," held last week in the rehearsal room.
The audience sat round a space cleared in the centre of the room, and watched as Questors' director, Mr. Alfred Emmet, put the young amateur actors and actresses through their routine class exercises, starting from the very simplest principles of voice-training, and going on through movement, communication spoken and unspoken, and leading up to group actions.
It was the efficient control of Mr. Emmet, and the boundless enthusiasm of his 18 students, that held the audience enraptured and involved all the way through.
Mr. Emmet, who helped to build the Questors Theatre with his own hands, and has been director there for 21 years, told the audience that "Simplicity is the keynote of what we try and teach the students to do" — and it was this very simplicity that helped the students to lead up to some very intense dramatic scenes, none of which were "hammed-up" or over-acted because of the excellent training they have had.
Actions and words were clear and direct, even when the students were asked to deliver a speech in "Gobble-de-gook," an imaginary language, in order to practise an interplay of characters.
February 1969
STUDENT ONE ACT PLAYS
COLLECT YOUR HANDBAGGAGE
by John Mortimer
A SLIGHT ACCIDENT
by James Saunders
THE TROJAN WOMEN
by Euripides
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Nigel Cowell
Cast:
Rosalie Beck, Stephanie Clark, Jane Collins, Pat Condon, Jarlath Conroy, Richard Earthy, Anne Howard, Miranda Hymen, Judy Lane, Christopher Ley, Peter Musselwhite, Sandra Rix, Michael Smith, Heather Tobias, Margaret Turner, Diana Watkins, Geoffrey Webb, John Wilson, Gene Wilson
There are no photos of this production surviving in archives, but we do have these press photos, in the Gazette and Post of 27 February 1969 and the County Times of 21 February 1969.
:
The February 1969 issue of QUESTOPICS included short profiles of some of the acting members:
JUDY LANE admits to once having a job ‘gathering’ wild oats for the Agricultural Research Laboratory! Now working as a teacher, she has so far confined her activities at Questors to painting scenery. She now faces the widely diverse roles of Andromache in THE TROJAN WOMEN and the featherbrained and harassed Penelope in A SLIGHT ACCIDENT.
DIANA WATKINS traveled 3,000 miles for her audition in the Student Group. While working in Canada she read an article about Questors and decided it was what she most wanted to do. She returned home, took a flat in Ealing and joined the students. In this, her first real part, she tackles the exacting role of Hecuba.
JARLATH CONROY from County Galway in the West of Ireland came to London via New York. He has so far made two appearances on the Questors stage, the first in a small non-speaking part and the second as a deaf-mute!! As Talthybius in THE TROJAN WOMEN it will be the first time his voice has been heard but it is certain it will not be the last.
CHRISTOPHER LEY is a Civil Servant who, apart from a few parts in school plays, had no acting experience until he joined Questors a year ago. He can be seen playing the lead in A SLIGHT ACCIDENT where he shows a delightful gift for comedy which may well in the future challenge those accomplished veterans of the Christmas Melodrama.
Two more extremely talented students were on loan from Group 23’s first year for this production:
Heather Tobias, who left to go to Chiswick Technical College after the first year and but managed to appear as a peasant in the 1968 Christmas melodrama THE SHAUGHRAUN, one of the WOMEN OF TROY and a nursemaid in THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (see below) - although according to the press report by that time she was already at Chiswick TC. Within a few years she became an established film and TV actor her numerous credits including THE SINGING DECTIVE, BLEAK HOUSE, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, HOLBY, THE BILL etc. She has also made a name for herself in recent years as a puppeteer and visual artist.
John Wilson who hardly needs any introduction, especially to our recent student groups, and who will feature more fully in the next installment of this survey.
The July issue of QUESTOPICS announced: